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A review by dreamofbookspines
The Island of Excess Love by Francesca Lia Block
5.0
CW: transphobia (type: misgendering).
Up front disclosure: I like this book less than Love in the Time of Global Warming. This is primarily because of the transphobic...thing? that happens. So at one point, Pen is thinking of sleeping with another guy, while she identifies Hex (a trans guy) as her lover. So she's already slept with a guy (Hex). There's a line about "she'd never slept with a guy before" when thinking about sleeping with the other guy. DING DING DING INCORRECT. Would've been fine if Block had written "she'd never slept with a cis* guy before". This bugged me. Not enough to ruin the entire book but your mileage may vary.
In some ways, this book is more depressing than Love in the Time of Global Warming. Poor Pen spends way more of this book in pain. Not unnecessarily - it fits the story - it's just a lot heavier than the first book. Still really good though, minus language issue mentioned above.
* Cis means "not trans". So if you were born with a vagina and you identify as a woman/girl, you're cis.
Up front disclosure: I like this book less than Love in the Time of Global Warming. This is primarily because of the transphobic...thing? that happens. So at one point, Pen is thinking of sleeping with another guy, while she identifies Hex (a trans guy) as her lover. So she's already slept with a guy (Hex). There's a line about "she'd never slept with a guy before" when thinking about sleeping with the other guy. DING DING DING INCORRECT. Would've been fine if Block had written "she'd never slept with a cis* guy before". This bugged me. Not enough to ruin the entire book but your mileage may vary.
In some ways, this book is more depressing than Love in the Time of Global Warming. Poor Pen spends way more of this book in pain. Not unnecessarily - it fits the story - it's just a lot heavier than the first book. Still really good though, minus language issue mentioned above.
* Cis means "not trans". So if you were born with a vagina and you identify as a woman/girl, you're cis.